Blog of the Week- Better After

If you want to be completely inspired by all the crafty, handy , amazing decorating - type -peeps in Blogland you really need to wander over to see Lindsay at Better After.

I’m sure this is probably quite an obvious choice for Blog of the Week, but I love, love,  love reading this. What some people come up with is totally inspiring, and often the makeovers are jaw dropping. I’ve almost been inspired countless times to rush out and buy furniture just to make it over – only to realise that we live in a cute smaller house and I don’t have anywhere to put lots of furniture. Bummer!

The concept : Take a before picture of something , a chair, a dresser, or a whole room and then provide an after picture of your finished product.

Some of the creations Lindsay highlights are simply amazing in their transformation. That someone can take a dresser found on the roadside and turn into something useable and gorgeous just blows my mind. There are lots of $2.00 Goodwill makeovers as well! (How come my local Goodwill doesn't sell things so cheap?)

What I love  about this blog is that it shows you can give something a new life, that you can  re-use or re-purpose almost anything, and that creativity is only limited by your imagination. And there are so many creative, imaginative people out there!

Check out the Sheet Music Desk  by Miss Mustard Seed, and White Armoire by Fabric Floozie and then I dare you not to spend most of the next hour saying things like "Wow" and "Incredible" as you troll through some of the other posts  on Lindsay's blog.

Better After – you are my Blog of the week. I have a feeling I'm going to be stealing ...err copying some of those ideas very soon.

Blog of The Week -Queen of Fifty Cents

As part of my Fabulous February Series, I'm highlighting some of my favourite blogs. And this post is a double celebration. Not only do I get to share an amazing blog with you , I get to say ...this is my 100th post!

If you’re into animals or thrifting  or you just like a good read you have to hightail it over to Queen of Fifty Cents . I love reading this blog and look forward to reading her  garage sale adventures for the week.

Reading about the Queen's thrifting trips is like actually being there.  It's like going Saturday morning garage snooping with a friend. None of my real life friends do garage sales so I love tagging along with the Queen. And Crazy Bargains! I can never get stuff for as cheap as she does.  And sometimes she finds quilts and quilting stuff really cheap! I never find that stuff! I have a serious case of garage sale envy.

Another thing I really enjoy about this blog is that not only do we get to hear about the garage sales (and whether what they were selling was overpriced , or whether the person was a crabby so and so ) is that each week I get to meet new dogs , without leaving my chair. Some of those dogs are so cute!

If you're not familiar with Queen of Fifty cents wander on over and spend some time looking at her bargains and living through her garage sale mornings. She is a complete hoot.

Long live the Queen of Fifty Cents.

Blog of the Week - An Inch of Gray

Ok, this is a shabby, economy  version of Blogs of Note...so sue me.  I never professed to be an innovator of new blog concepts.

One of my Fabulous February goals was to write about one blog a week that inspires me.  I'm sitting here with a large pack of Monte Carlo biscuits so you can bet your bippy Blog of the Week isn't going to be a weight loss blog. Maybe next week...

I follow so many blogs and the contents are really diverse. I like to think that's because I have many interests. In reality it's probably because I have major issues with staying focussed on one thing and have to be juggling ten things at once, including my blog interests. The people who write the blogs I follow are geographically scattered. Some use humour and profanity in order to make social statements. Some people talk about their daily lives. There are home decorating blogs, before and after renovation blogs, cooking blogs, thrifty blogs, sewing, giveaway  and quilting blogs. All this diversity makes it hard to choose a blog to blog about....or so I thought, until tonight.

In the space of a week , Anna, from An Inch of Gray has taken me on a journey which has included inspiring me to recognise and  to be grateful for my strengths and to suck it up when life throws me crappy stuff, completely cracked me up with her tear provoking post about getting her eyebrows threaded and gave me a wet-your-pants-funny look at her family weekend away and her  own perception of her parenting.  

(I dare you to tell me you haven't been right there with her if you're a Mum)

I work with stressed out, harrassed, on-the-edge parents every day Anna, and I want to reassure you, you're completely normal.

On top of all this Anna writes about her hilariously funny sex ed talk with her son, her criteria for car buying, and the guts this woman has in posting a picture of herself first thing in the morning defies belief.  ( I dont even like photos of myself  that have photo shopped out all my wrinkles, bags and saggy bits )  

An Inch of Gray -Q.I.M.P. salutes your fabulous-ness. Thankyou!

 P.S. 5 Monte Carlo's and half a bag of spearmint leaves were canibalized during the making of this blog post.